Jack Shelton

I agree that stories like Jack Shelton's need to be told, but the implication of the article was that this was the current situation in Guatemala. Not true. While we do not give much economic support to the Guatemalan people, we can afford to lend our moral support as they struggle to work toward democracy by publicly recognizing the progress they've made. Recountings of past atrocities and violations of human rights without a balancing statement of progress is criminal. JOHN H. TAYLOR Santa Maria

I agree that stories like Jack Shelton's need to be told, but the implication of the article was that this was the current situation in Guatemala. Not true. While we do not give much economic support to the Guatemalan people, we can afford to lend our moral support as they struggle to work toward democracy by publicly recognizing the progress they've made. Recountings of past atrocities and violations of human rights without a balancing statement of progress is criminal. JOHN H. TAYLOR Santa Maria

September 8, 1991 | KEVIN McKIERNAN, Kevin McKiernan is a photojournalist based in Santa Barbara; he is writing a screenplay about this story.

"WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR CHILD disappears in a foreign country?" Kathryn Shelton asks. The question has consumed her for a decade, the 10 years since she last saw her eldest son, Jack. Jack was brilliant and introspective, a man who'd graduated from college with honors in philosophy only to join the Marines when jobs were hard to come by.

September 8, 1991 | KEVIN McKIERNAN, Kevin McKiernan is a photojournalist based in Santa Barbara; he is writing a screenplay about this story.

"WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR CHILD disappears in a foreign country?" Kathryn Shelton asks. The question has consumed her for a decade, the 10 years since she last saw her eldest son, Jack. Jack was brilliant and introspective, a man who'd graduated from college with honors in philosophy only to join the Marines when jobs were hard to come by.

After months of public criticism, the Clinton administration has unveiled a series of reforms aimed at protecting home buyers using the federal government's largest mortgage financing program. Whether they'll actually help home buyers, however, is still an open question. The changes primarily affect appraisals and inspections for Federal Housing Administration loans, a mortgage resource used by about 800,000 first-time and moderate-income buyers a year.

After an absence of three years from Orange County and 18 years from Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park, the Ladies PGA will return there next week for the inaugural Nippon Travel-MBS tournament, a $300,000 event that will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Childhelp U.S.A. The 72-hole event starts Sept. 21.

It's hard work being a hotel and entertainment magnate. Take Merv Griffin. Please. Every morning, he gears up for magnation by doing his exercises--three crossword puzzles, including the one produced by the Los Angeles Times in your hot little hands. "Or I don't get out of bed," he says. Good. Keep us employed. The crossword puzzles must be working. Griffin, busy bee that he is, is about to launch yet another venture, his dream supper club at his hotel, the Beverly Hilton.

More than 40 years had passed in the blink of an eye. The CBS eye. The boys in blue--CBS ushers in the early '50s--felt a reunion was in order. They came to swap stories from their youth, when Jack Benny was king of radio, "My Friend Irma" meant dumb blond and the best-known of the Bergens was Edgar. It was show and tell at the Smoke House in Burbank. Everyone had a story. "No reruns!" someone heckled as one storyteller took two turns. Once in show biz, always in show biz.

Writer-director Ron Shelton hasn't seen the new special-edition DVD of his 1988 baseball comedy "Bull Durham" (MGM, $25), although he did participate in the new documentary featured on the disc that arrives in stores today. He's also featured on a commentary track--but that was recorded four years ago for the movie's laserdisc release. "I just said what came into my mind," Shelton recalls. "I've never even heard it. I get more letters about that commentary and I don't even know what I said."